Kingfisher is a library for downloading, caching, and displaying remote images in Swift applications. It provides an integrated framework that manages the entire lifecycle of remote assets, from initial network retrieval to final rendering within user interface components.
The library distinguishes itself through a two-tiered storage mechanism that balances rapid access via volatile memory with persistent availability through disk caching. It features a modular processing pipeline that allows for dynamic image transformations, such as applying filters or geometric modifications, during the retrieval process before assets are stored or displayed.
To maintain interface responsiveness, the library offloads computationally expensive tasks like image decoding to background threads and automatically cancels pending network requests when associated interface elements are no longer needed. It also includes background prefetching utilities to download content in advance, alongside configurable cache management settings to control storage limits and expiration.
